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Bravery

Described as courageous behavior or character.  It was on full display when our child decided to go to school.  Let me explain.

In America violence using firearms has always been business as usual.  When that starts happening where the perpetrator is a minor it becomes alarming.  When it is omnipresent as part of school culture you know there is something fundamentally wrong with the morality of the nation.

So it happened that a threat to kill people at our local school was posted on a child's locker.  Police came in and did their thing.  The principal sent out communications to all parents indicating that the situation while disturbing was under control.

In the age of social media the boards lit up.  For a 3,000 person campus the high school was gripped by fear.  More I think the parents of the kids than the kids themselves who seem to have acquired an unusual immunity to this type of social aberration.

The parents blamed the principal for not enforcing discipline while some took to moaning about the status quo.  There was lot of back and forth the culmination of which was a large scale herd decision to not send their respective wards to school on the day of the promised apocalypse.

Totally understandable if the family in question did not feel adequately protected.

We asked our child what was to be done.  The response - without batting an eyelid - I have things to get done and some stuff to bring back and I am going.

We wholeheartedly supported the decision.  The student's job is to study, the teacher's to teach and the local law enforcement's to serve and protect.  A third of the 3,000 students attended while around 50% of the teaching population did.  The police did their job with presence on campus on full display to assure anyone that we did not tolerate nonsense and that such cowardly and dastardly acts will not deter the primary mission of this school - to continue teaching.

I applaud those that did not bow to bullies while completely empathize with folk that felt they did not want to take the chance esp where their most precious ones were involved.

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